Waste Water Treatment Plant @ KCT
Waste water being treated at the plant commissioned at Kumaraguru College of Technology based on the Sequencing Batch Reactor technology. A waste water treatment plant has recently been commissioned at Kumaraguru College of Technology. The treatment is based on the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) technology.The technology is innovative in the sense that treatment of domestic sewage and removal of clear water is done in a single tank. The entire treatment cycle “Fill-React-Settle-Withdraw” takes place in the same tank. “A conventional treatment plant involves separate tanks for different processes involved, such as sedimentation, refilling, aeration, clear water removal, etc.,” said G.L. Sathyamoorthy, a civil engineering department faculty involved in the commissioning of the plant. The treatment plant, which has a capacity to treat 2.5 lakh litres, takes eight hours to complete a cycle and discharges clear water.
The SBR system has been implemented at a cost of Rs. 55 lakh in the college as a result of a memorandum of understanding with the National Institute of Agronomic Research, Laboratory of Environmental Bio-technology, France. The principal investigators of the treatment plant project are Joseph V. Thanikal, principal of KCT, and Michel Torrijos of the institute. The waste water from hostel bathrooms and kitchens is used as the domestic sewage for treatment. After an eight-hour cycle one lakh litres of water is let out.
The college, for the time being, stores it in the aerobic lagoon that goes directly for gardening purposes. It is also used for toilet purposes after undergoing chlorination process. Since the aim of the college is to treat five lakh litres a day, another plant along with two underground storage tanks is all set to come up in another four months at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh.According to Mr. Sathyamoorthy, tests are made to check for effluents after treatment in the environmental laboratory in the college. It is also proposed to introduce a filtration system to recycle the water for non-potable purposes in the campus. The other members of the team are R. Rajinikanth and D. Suresh Babu.
